‘No adjudication on new Form 6’
Justice Bagchi said the revised Form 6 was not in existence when the Supreme Court delivered its judgment on the Bihar SIR of electoral rolls in May 2026. Therefore, the court had no occasion to examine or decide on the changes.
“There is no adjudication on the new Form 6. That is all we have said,” Justice Bagchi observed.
He added that the Chief Justice’s earlier remarks only meant that the new form did not exist at the time of the Bihar SIR judgment. “That does not either say it is approved or disapproved by the Supreme Court,” Justice Bagchi said.
The bench also said that observations made by the court do not amount to constitutional adjudication.
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What the revised form requires
Form 6 is the statutory application used by citizens to register as new voters. Under the revised declaration, applicants are required to state whether they or their parents were included or mapped in the previous SIR exercise.
The change has become controversial amid allegations that the Election Commission introduced it without following the prescribed legal procedure. The Supreme Court’s clarification is significant because the poll panel had reportedly claimed that the modification had the top court’s approval.
On October 5, CJI Surya Kant had said, “Any modified Form 6 has not been approved by us. Let’s be clear,” while hearing a plea seeking action against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.
Court to examine validity
The Supreme Court said it is open to examining the validity of the revised Form 6 if a proper challenge is placed before it. It agreed to issue notice on the fresh petition and listed the matter for October 27, along with connected petitions relating to the SIR exercise and allegations against the Chief Election Commissioner.
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The clarification sharpens the legal dispute over electoral roll revisions, with the court making clear that the Election Commission cannot cite its earlier observations as judicial endorsement of the new declaration.
The next hearing on October 27 is expected to consider both the validity of the modified Form 6 and broader challenges to the Election Commission’s conduct of the SIR process.